[722] Dom. State Papers, Chas. I., Vol. 293, No. 115, July, 1635.

[723] Ib., Vol. 315, No. 25, March 1635/6.

[724] Ib., Vol. 250, 11, II., Nov. 1633.

[725] Ib., Vol. 426, 37 and 19, July, 1639.

[726] Dom. State Papers, Chas. I., Vol. 388, No. 7, April, 1638.

[727] Cherbury and Ford, Chas. I., Vol. 272, 53, 54, July, 1634. See above for a like report from Monslow, also where the effect of the enforcement of the Book of Orders was immediate.

[728] Vol. 185, 41, Feb. 1630/1. From Morleston and Litchurch, Derbyshire, also the justices say of vagrants "our country is cleerly deliuered of them." Vol. 194, No. 25, June, 1631.

[729] Vol. 216, No. 103, May 30th, 1632. From several divisions of Somerset also we have a report which shows that the country was becoming quiet, though the good order is often attributed to the watches for vagrants. "Watches and warde have beene and are continued whereby the number of vagabonds are much diminished and this country thereby well freed." Vol. 289, No. 20. Also from the wapentakes of Stancliff and Ewecross, co. York, we hear there are "verie fewe or none to bee founde wanderinge or rogeinge." Vol. 364, No. 49. Although in these cases the improvement is attributed to punishment rather than relief, it probably indicates that relief also was well administered since neither justices nor inhabitants could or would prevent vagabondage by punishment unless it were accompanied by efficient poor relief.

[730] Between 1600 and 1688 wages rise continuously in every decade. If we take the decennial averages of labour given by Prof. Rogers we find that between the accession of James I. and 1688 in most cases the greatest increase of wages was during the period from 1643 to 1652. But this increase may be largely owing to the disturbances of the Civil War, since from 1663 to 1672 the rate of increase is less than that of any preceding ten years of the century. With the exception of the decade of the Civil War the greatest rise in wages occurs during the ten years immediately preceding, from 1633 to 1642, that is during the time when the organisation established by the Book of Orders was established. Moreover the increase is the more remarkable when we compare the rates of wages with the price of corn. For from 1633-1642 the average price of wheat per quarter was 41s. 2d., while from 1643-1652 it was 48s. 11d., and during the next ten years 47s. 2¼d. Hist. of Agric. and Prices, Vol. V., p. 276. The average price of wheat was therefore considerably lower during the decade before the War. The following are the decennial averages of the worst paid labour given by Prof. Rogers, Hist. of Agric. and Prices, Vol. V., p. 672:

Tiler or Slater per weekBricklayer and Man per weekLabourer to Artisan per weekDigging, Hedging, or Ditching per weekWomen's ordinary work per week
s.d.s.d.s.d.s.d.s.d.
1603-161260109½40410½26
1613-162262¾102¾40¼410¾111
1623-16326811044¼4921½
1633-164276118¾5056½30
1643-165295½141¾510½59½26
1653-1662111177606026
1663-1672911¼13061¼61¾30